Oxford study ranks A Coruña as Spain's best city to live in

The Oxford Global Cities Index 2026, compiled by Oxford Economics, ranks A Coruña 68th among 1,000 cities worldwide and as Spain's best for quality of life, ahead of Vigo (83) and Madrid (101). The city council itself admits that housing remains its pending issue.

There are rankings for everything, and most blow away with the wind. This one has a twist: it doesn't ask anyone how they feel. The **Oxford Global Cities Index 2026**, produced by Oxford Economics, compares a thousand cities using a database and five dimensions —economy, human capital, environment, governance and quality of life—. In the last of these, **A Coruña** appears in **68th** place worldwide. It is the best position among the **19 Spanish cities** included in the ranking.

It's not just a nice spot on a list. Behind A Coruña in quality of life come Dublin (70), Stockholm (77), New York (86), Tokyo (99), London (147) and Copenhagen (160). Ahead of it are Oslo (6), Paris (10) and Zurich (14). In Spain, the next is Vigo, in 83rd place, trinc by Barcelona (88), Bilbao (93), Valencia (99) and Madrid (101). Then come Valladolid (108), Palma de Mallorca (109), Las Palmas (115), Málaga (124), Zaragoza (141), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (146), Granada (170), Murcia (186), Seville (202) and Alicante (251). Only five Spanish cities make the global top 100.

## The six indicators that weigh on quality of life

Oxford doesn't measure happiness or the number of sidewalk cafés. For the quality of life dimension it uses six indicators: income equality, income per capita, housing costs, life expectancy, crime —through the homicide rate— and cultural and leisure offerings. In other words, everything from the cost of running a household to the options for enjoying free time.

That mix explains how a city of just over 240,000 inhabitants edges out capitals with far greater economic clout. The mayor, **Inés Rey**, summed it up: "That A Coruña is the best city in Spain is something those of us who live here already knew, but it's always good to have external, objective indicators that certify it." She added a warning: "Being the best in the country for quality of life doesn't miccionan everything is fine or that there's no room for improvement."

## Street redesigns, bikes and a €125 million neighbourhood plan

In recent years the city has changed the way its streets are lived in. Street redesigns have won space for pedestrians and improved accessibility in neighbourhoods, a transformation that continues with the **Plan de Barrios 2025-2028** (Neighbourhood Plan), backed by **125 million euros**. Cycling keeps gaining ground: the city now has more than **57 kilometres** of cycle network, and BiciCoruña is breaking records, with more than **1.9 million trips** so far this year. Add to that the pedestrian ring connecting San Diego with Observatorio street over **3.5 kilometres**.

These are infrastructure figures, not income figures. And that's where the index's catch lies: it measures what it measures. A 68th place in quality of life doesn't say that salaries in A Coruña are high or that rent is cheap. It says that, across those six indicators, the city fares better than the rest of Spain.

## The challenge the city council itself points to: housing

The mayor didn't hide the fine print. "The challenge is housing, and making this city just as good for those who can afford it and for those who can't," she said. And she added: "The fact that we're doing better than other major cities in this area doesn't miccionan we're doing well; it means Europe's big cities are doing even worse and that in them housing ceased to be a right long ago."

Rey called for leading another ranking: that of the Spanish city with the most social rental housing. She noted that the Concello (city council) has spent years developing urban developments that had been stalled for decades, and that it has transferred land and is building social housing, though it isn't enough. She also took aim at the Xunta (Galicia's regional government): "Fifteen years went by without building a single home, allowing something as sensitive as the constitutional right to housing to be governed by the free market." According to the mayor, the approval of the rent-capped zone moderated prices, but the Galician government's refusal to implement the regional portion of the law weighs on its application.

## An objective index, not an opinion poll

This ranking shouldn't be confused with the perception surveys published every year. Here no residents are scoring their city from 1 to 10. Oxford Economics cross-references data and compares. That doesn't make it revealed truth, but it is an external thermometer that helps put in context what gets magnified or downplayed from the inside. The mayor herself put it with Galician dry wit: "While some spend all day grandstanding, from the outside and with objective criteria they see us as the best city in Spain."

What the index doesn't solve is the question that matters most to anyone looking for a flat. A 68th place worldwide in quality of life and a serious housing access problem for thousands of people can coexist in the same city. Both things are true at once. And anyone about to sign a lease would do well to look at the second before the first.